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Sunday, September 21, 2014

5,500 vets on the street in the Sunshine State

Jacksonville Officials See Population Of Homeless Vets Changing
WJCT News
Peter Haden
September 21, 2014
Volunteers assisted nearly 300 veterans at Jacksonville's Stand Down event Saturday.
Credit Peter Haden
Any trend in veteran homelessness will be seen in Florida. In 2013, officials counted more than 5,500 vets on the street in the Sunshine State-- 10 percent of all homeless vets in the nation. Only California had more.

Brian Richmond, 25, was discharged from the United States Air Force four years ago. He's been homeless for the last three and a half.

"My mom passed away. I ran out of money and couldn’t keep my house up, so had to sell it," he said. "So, I had to come out here - out to the streets."

He slept in a tent under a bridge in Jacksonville for two years. Then he got into the Sulzbacher Center - a transitional housing facility where he stays now.

Richmond was one of about 300 vets that came to the Veterans Stand Down Resource Fair Saturday at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds. They had access to medical and dental care, haircuts, clothes and help with legal issues.

It’s the 15th year in a row Jacksonville has hosted the Stand Down event.
read more here

If you care about homeless veterans, you may be interested in this as well.

Veterans housing initiative imperiled by Shinseki's resignation
But an estimated 50,000 veterans remain homeless, and Shinseki, the driving force behind the initiative, is now gone, forced to resign amid the department's health care scandal. There are concerns that Congress, despite bipartisan support in the past, will not continue to finance the program at its current level.

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